Thesis presented December 05, 2022

Abstract:
Quantum information processing offers new protocols and functionalities in the field of communications by providing an absolute security guaranteed by the quantum physics laws as well as in the field of quantum computing, with the perspective to drastically speed up massively parallel computations. The second quantum revolution is now about to take place with theoretical concepts being brought into concrete applications thanks to integrated technological solutions. Photons are an excellent physical implementation of quantum bits for these two applications. Photonic quantum information processing requires three key functionalities: a source of single photons, a reconfigurable circuits for their manipulation and a single photon detector. The objective of this PhD work is to design, fabricate and characterize superconducting single photon detectors integrated on silicon photonic circuits, with very high efficiency above 95%, a large spectral operating range at telecom wavelength and the ability to resolve the number of received photons. This PhD will take place at CEA, in collaboration between the Quantum Photonics, Electronics and Engineering Laboratory (PHELIQS) at CEA-IRIG and CEA-LETI institute to benefit from their complementary expertise. This PhD work will be conducted in parallel with developments of single photon sources and will bring an essential building block for the integration of complex circuits able to generate, manipulate and detect tens of photonic qubits for secured communications and quantum computing.

Keywords:
Quantum photonic, Superconducting material, Superconducting nanowire single photon detectors

On-line thesis.​